Interview, Types of Interview, Role of Interviewer in data Collection,

Interview skills and Interviewer’s effect

By
Dr. Sarat Borah,
Head & Associate Professor,
Dept. of Business Management,
CKB Commerce College, Jorhat
 What is interview?
• Interview means a meeting between two persons to obtain information
relating to research study. The person who takes the interview is called
INTERVIEWER and the person who give the interview is called
INTERVIEWEE.
• As a method of scientific social research, several scholars have tried to
define interview.
• 1. Hsin Pao Yang, “ The interview is a technique of field work which is used
to watch the behaviour of an individual, to record statements, to observe the
concrete results of social or group interactions.”
• 2. Polit and Beck, “ Interview is a method of data collection in which one
person asks questions to another person: Interviews are conducted either face
to face or by telephone”.
In simple words, we can say that interview is a method of data collection
in which researcher meets the respondents and collect information about his
study area through talk or asking questions to them and recorded the answer.
TYPES OF INTERVIEW
• Interviews are broadly categories as under-
• I) PERSONAL INTERVIEW:
• It is a face to face interaction with observer and respondents. In this
method the interviewer ask various questions and collect necessary
information.
• If direct personal contact is not possible than indirect oral examination can
be conducted which should be subject to cross examination by the person
conducting investigation.
• Some interview is conducted through well thought pre-determined
questions in a structured way. This interview is called as structured
interviews. It is a rigid procedure for asking questions.
• But in case of unstructured interview there is no rigidity in asking
questions. Flexibility is maintained in questioning. In this interview, no
pre-determined questions are used, if necessary additional questions can
also be asked.
Contd.

• II) FOCUSED INTERVIEW:

• When experience of respondent is given along with its effects it is called
focused interview. In this method, observer has freedom to decide the
sequence of the questions.
• The respondent is confined to the issues considered conversance. These
interview are generally used in developing hypothesis and conducted
mostly as unstructured one.
• III) CLINICAL INTERVIEW:
• This interview IS mainly concerned with individual feelings motivation
and experience. In this method of data collection information is left to the
discretion of the interviewer.
• IV) NON-DIRECT INTERVIEW:
• In this method in place of direct interview the respondent is encourage to
express his opinion on the topic given to him for discussion. As an
observer interviewer assess the feeling and beliefs of the respondent.
 Role of Interviewer in data Collection
• The interviewer plays an important role in gathering information in
research. In general the interviewer is a consultant with the following wide
ranging responsibilities.
• 1. Recommend the topics and questions
• 2. Controls, plan and manage the interview
• 3. Proposes the criteria for drawing the sample participants
• 4. Develop various pre-tasking exercises
• 5. Prepare research tools to be used during the interview
• 6. Supervices the interview process
• 7. Analyse the data and draw insight
• 8. writing the report, taking video clip, photo etc.

• It is said that, interviewer do more than the respondent

 INTERVIEW SKILLS

• The four main areas of interview skills that are

required in research work are-
• 1. Asking the questions
• 2. Listening to the replies
• 3. Recording the answers
• 4. Reporting back the overall findings